1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to driving methods for electron-emitting devices using carbon fibers, driving methods for electron sources, manufacturing methods for electron sources, and image display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Field emission types (hereinafter referred to as “FE type(s)”) of electron-emitting devices have heretofore been known.
Examples of the FE types of electron-emitting devices are described in J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 47, No. 12, p. 5248 (1976) and others.
Fibrous carbon materials (carbon fibers) having nano-sized diameters, such as carbon nanotubes, have recently attracted attention as electron-emitting materials for the FE types.
Carbon nanotubes themselves are described in, for example, Nature, 354, (1991) 56. Aggregates of carbon fibers are described in, for example, JP-A-2000-095509 and Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 76, No. 17, pp. 2367–2369 (2000).
The techniques of using carbon nanotubes as electron-emitting materials for the FE types of electron-emitting devices are described in, for example, NIKKEI MECHANICAL, 2001. 12, No. 567, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 81, No. 2, pp. 343–345 (2002), U.S. Pat. No. 5,773,921, U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,028, U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,422 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,973,444.
In addition, for example, image display apparatuses, image forming apparatuses, image recording apparatuses, electron and ion beam sources have been researched as applications of an FE-type electron-emitting device which uses an aggregate (bundle) of a plurality of carbon fibers as its electron-emitting member.
As one of applications of such electron-emitting devices to image display apparatuses in particular, research has been conducted into an image display apparatus which uses in combination electron-emitting devices and phosphors serving to emit light by irradiation with electron beams.
By way of example, FIG. 23 shows a multi-electron source in which a multiplicity of FE-type electron-emitting devices are two-dimensionally arranged and these devices are wired in matrix form.
In FIG. 23, reference numeral 4001 denotes electron-emitting devices, reference numeral 4002 denotes row wirings, and reference numeral 4003 denotes column wirings. Actually, the row wirings 4002 and the column wirings 4003 have finite electrical resistance. However, in FIG. 23, the electrical resistance of the row wirings 4002 is shown as electrical resistance 4004, while the electrical resistance of the column wirings 4003 is shown as electrical resistance 4005. This wiring method is called “matrix wiring”. For the convenience of illustration, a matrix of 6×6 is shown in FIG. 23, but the scale of the matrix is, of course, not limitative. For example, in the case of a multi-electron source for an image display apparatus, tens of thousands to tens of millions of devices which are sufficient to provide the desired image display are arranged and wired.